Can anyone recommed a Bear Can for my trip on the JMT. I have both a GVP super lightweight pack and an ArcTeryx Bora super heavy pack. I was hoping to be able to carry the GVP but the more I look into the bear can and the amount of food I will have to carry the more doubtful I become about taking the GVP.
Any help would be appreciated.
Crock
Crockett
I’m also doing the JMT this summer SOBO from Tuolumne. I had an Osprey Aether 60, but it was just too small for the cannister, so I upgraded to the ULA Equipment P-2 (Small) and a Bear Vault. The cannister fits into the pack (barely) sitting upright on top of my sleeping bag & clothes. Everything else is stuffed around the cannister.
I am going very minimal. The pack and everything else, including the cannister but excluding food & water is 18#. I know that’s not “ultralight”, but “lightweight” is going to have to do on this trip.
Just Sit
I’m looking around at lightweight options for Bear cans too – have a 22 oz Katahdin BP down from my behemoth Longbed Terraplane (6000 in3) that you could loose a Garcia Machines Bearcan in. (But it does have a magnificient suspension and load bearing capability – I gotta give it that!!!)
18# sounds pretty good for the JMT i.e. pretty chilly at altitude even in the summer – what is the official definition of “Ultralite” weight wise???
Raz
I’m looking around at lightweight options for Bear cans too – have a 22 oz Katahdin BP down from my behemoth Longbed Terraplane (6000 in3) that you could loose a Garcia Machines Bearcan in. (But it does have a magnificient suspension and load bearing capability – I gotta give it that!!!)
18# sounds pretty good for the JMT i.e. pretty chilly at altitude even in the summer – what is the official definition of “Ultralite” weight wise???
Raz
Check out the Bearikade cannisters by Wild Ideas. www.wild-ideas.net They are the lightest ones I’ve found so far, and are easier to use than the old Garcias. You can get them in two sizes. One is sized similar (but slightly larger) than the Garcia cans, the other is a bit larger if you are going to be out more days between resupplies. In either case, if you plan your food carefully (compact, calorie-dense food), you should be able to fit in more days’ worth of food than they claim. The cans are expensive, but they are available for rental. If you are looking to buy something cheaper, the new Bear Vault (material looks something like a Nalgene) looks interesting, but it is definitely heavier than the Bearikade.
kanga
Kanga is on to a good thing. The wild idea cans are about the lightest ones around.
Zaphod
I just went to the Wild Ideas web site and found out that you can rent a canister directly from their web site. I think I might go this route so that I can have some time to figure out how to pack it in my pack.
Has anyone rented a bear canister either from the company or from the park service?
Thanks,
Crock
Crockett
At 2 pounds for a Weekender, that’s still pretty damn heavy. Can’t someone come up with a nanotechnology fiber can that will weigh a couple of ounces and withstand any bear or Mack truck mauling?
steve hiker
As far as I know, there are only three types of bear can on the market: Bearikade (2 sizes), Bear Vault, and Garcia.
There is only one long haul on the JMT: Vermillion Valley Resort (or Muir Trail Ranch) to Whitney, which is around 120 miles.
If you’ve not already made an investment, then perhaps the best option is to get a relatively small, cheap can (Bear Vault), but pack VERY CAREFULLY for that one haul. Hikers are used to looking at calories per unit weight. When packing a bear can, you have to think about calories per unit of volume. For example, Cheetos have plenty of calories by weight, but horrible calories by volume. On the other hand, tortillas and rice are both very compact.
Here is one site that talks about packing a bear can efficiently:
http://www.sierrawildbear.gov/foodstorage/packingabearcanister.htm
There is another site, which I can’t find right now, that is written by an absolute psycho on the subject of dense packing— which is EXACTLY the kind of person I’d want to hear from in this situation 
Eric
If you going on the JMT I think you might not have known this Eric. John wrote, he put just plain bleached flour into water and mix and drink it after he tired of baking. He said something like, “if you get back to basics you can do very well on just bread and water” for the couple months that he was out, so John Muir say’s.
So today, I would say the same, with some canola oil.
Greg
Tom Reynolds wrote a very good article, posted on the pcta.org website of how to get the maximum amount of food in a canister. Here’s the link:
www.pcta.org/planning/before_trip/health/canistercare.doc
Just Sit
This is good stuff. I’m reading with interest.
Any more suggestions on dense calories for low volume? How do the dense and oh-so-yummy Snicker bars stack up? How about protiens?
Jan LiteShoe
Go to the health food store and ask for TVP [ textured vegetable protein]. After years of carrying can or packaged meats, this stuff takes on the flavor of any Lipton dish or the like and is so cheap,and plentiful. Like $3 a pound. I use about 8 oz a day overkill cause its not that bad and so cheap. But you got to get to a health food store is sometimes a problem on the trails.But I can’t seem to find anything on the market yet to campare to the TVP at the health food stores, I can get in all 48 states as far as cheap protein Jan lite Shoe. Some of the TVP is powder from shipping and nobody wants the stuff but me, so that’s why its cheap. Give it a try, before you leave, like I said, they don’t call it TVP for nothing. GREGORY Forester
Snickers bars stack up just like they say they do on the label, pretty good if they don’t melt on you, even so, they don’t taste like as bad as powerbars, ehhh.
Also I have a motto if you meet me you’ll be thinking anyway so, I think Thoreau said it or something But I also have to say cause I to think the same way to you in town sometimes." Its more about H2O than food. Remember this aspiring LDH;
“I eat to live, not live to eat”., I think everybody said that from time to time.
But then again, I don’t know one dam thing about bear cans, cept they suck, and everyone knows it. That’s what I learned here.
:cheers
Greg
By law you should always have a bear can… having said that, if your only on the JMT you will find bear boxes along the trail at like every campground. because of this the bears have moved out of the JMT area to feast on other not so lucky folk.
Still problem with mice in the food boxes.
Only time Bears came in to camp was inside yosim
Have a great walk
Goof